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Washington State Rail Capacity & System Needs Study

The Legislature provided
the Commission with funding
and a mandate to conduct
a statewide rail capacity
and system needs analysis
- ESSB
6091, Section 206 (pdf 222 kb). The
Washington State Transportation
Commission oversaw this
study of strategic freight
and passenger rail system
needs, challenges and
opportunities. The
study reviewed the
current powers, authorities,
and interests the state
has in freight and passenger
rail and recommended
policies for state participation
and ownership of rail
infrastructure and service
delivery. The study also
prepared a plan for managing
state owned rail assets.

Commission Rail Study
Team

To ensure the Commission
is able to focus and remain
fully engaged throughout
the course of this effort,
the Commission appointed
four of its members to
serve on a team that is
responsible for overseeing
the detailed implementation
of this study.
The Commission Team membership
is as follows:

Dan O'Neal - Team Lead
Ed Barnes
Dick Ford
Carol Moser

Final
Rail Study Report (pdf 1.3 mb)
This is the final report
of the Commission's Rail
Capacity and System Needs
study. It was presented to
and adopted by the Commission
at their December 2006 monthly
meeting in Olympia. The report
presents recommendations
on the whether or not the
state should participate
in rail, what the state's
role in rail should be, investment
approaches, governance, and
a state asset management
plan.

Background Materials

Interim
Report 1 (pdf 2.2 mb)
This background
report summarizes
the findings and
conclusions of work
done early on in
the study that assessed
the state of the
rail system, its
critical problems
and bottlenecks,
and current plans.
It describes how
the system is working
now and how it will
likely work in the
future in the absence
of state action.

Addendum
to Interim Report
1 (pdf 1.5 mb)
This report
presents comments
received after the
issuance of Interim
Report 1 and provides
responses to those
comments.

Interim
Report 2 (pdf 567 kb)
This report
provides draft policies
to govern state action
and investments in
the rail system.
It presents proposed
processes for assessing
whether actions and
investments are consistent
with state policies
and for evaluating
the benefits and
impacts of investments
on rail user groups
and Washington communities.

Technical
Memos

The technical
memos below provided
the base research
and information upon
which the interim
reports and the final
report were built
upon.

Rail
Study Outreach
Plan

The purpose
of this plan was
to ensure that
stakeholders throughout
the state had varied
opportunities for
reviewing and providing
input to the study
as it progressed.
The plan has five
components: stakeholder
interviews, regional
listening sessions,
web-notices and
e-postings to stakeholder
list, formation
of a technical
resource panel,
and Commission
and Legislative
briefings. Details
of these are listed
below.

Stakeholder
Interview Summary (pdf 117 kb)
This document
summarizes the
comments received from a number
of interviews done
with various rail
stakeholders at
the beginning of the
study. This input
was critical to
shaping the direction the
study took.

Technical
Resource Panel
Invitation Letter (pdf 65 mb)
This letter
was sent out to
approximately 60 key stakeholders
inviting them to
participate on
our technical resource
panel. To keep
this process dynamic,
the panel was not
designed with the
idea of having
regular meetings but rather,
was created to
provide technical expertise
in their individual
areas as needed
and called upon by the
Commission. Members
of this panel were
utilized in different
ways, some of which
included: reviewing
various draft documents;
participating in
small meetings
and/or conference calls
on topics related
to their field
of expertise; and provided
with an open invitation
to proactively
offer feedback to the Commission
at anytime during
the study.

Regional
Listening Session
Summary (pdf 2.4 mb)
The Commission
held five regional
listening sessions
around the state
during the early
stages of the study
to gather public
input from citizens
and users of the
system. Approximately
300 individuals
attended these sessions and
provided vital
insights and ideas that helped
frame the policy
discussion of this
study. This summary
report provides
an overview of the sessions
and input received.

For more background information
about the Study please
see the following information: